Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

From directing mind to senior managers: UK corporate criminal liability, enforcement trends and governance imperatives under the Crime and Policing Act 2026

Published on: 26 May 2026

Published by a LexisNexis Corporate Crime expert

Legal News

Article summary

CPA 2026 materially widens corporate criminal exposure by extending attribution for all offences to conduct by ‘senior managers’ exercising significant decision-making power. This moves risk beyond the narrow ‘directing mind’ test and brings companies-particularly large, decentralised groups-under sharper enforcement scrutiny. Expect prosecutors to probe operational leadership, governance gaps and aggregate evidence across individuals. Boards should revisit delegation, clarify accountability and reinforce oversight of operational choices. A continuing hurdle is pinpointing who is a senior manager in complex structures, with courts likely to prioritise substance over form. More broadly, the regime will reshape how organisations record authority, decisions and escalation, with greater emphasis on demonstrating how choices are taken and supervised in practice.

A reshaped strategic risk profile

The most immediate effect of CPA 2026 is a broader range of situations in which a company can be criminally liable. Historically, attribution turned on the ‘directing mind and will’-a doctrine that often insulated large, complex organisations. The new framework lowers that bar by capturing conduct of those playing a significant role in decision-making or management of substantial...

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